BPAL Milk Chocolate and Green Tea Truffle

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle is as much of a mouthful as it is a noseful. It’s a wonderfully rich blend of matcha, sweetness, and chocolate. Smells so good I’m almost tempted to taste it. Truffle Green Tea

In Bottle: Strong cocoa and milky note with the bitter astringency of matcha layered in the background. The cocoa in this tips a bit more toward powder in the bottle and doesn’t smell like a heck of a whole lot of foodiness.

Applied: Where Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle shines is upon application. The cocoa note turns into a much better and much more convincing chocolate when you actually put this on. It warms up, smooths out and gains a creamy texture smelling like very convincing chocolate. The matcha is still lending a bit of its bitterness but it has that nice grassy, sweet and dessert-like quality to it too making this seem almost edible on the skin. The bitterness in the matcha is giving this fragrance is a nice kick toward dark chocolate too and this scent will remain fairly linear though you will lose the grassiness as it ages on the skin.

Extra: Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle contains a cocoa note in it. Like many of BPAL’s cocoa note contained fragrances, you may experience oil separation. If you notice your fragrance isn’t smelling as nice as it should, or smells a bit off, put the cap on, secure it tightly and roll the bottle or imp (sample vial) on its side between your hands for approximately five minutes to re-blend everything. Remember to roll. Don’t shake. Shaking may cause the oils to break down.

Design: Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle is bottled in much the same way as other Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab fragrances. Held in an amber apothecary bottle, Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle  sports a limited edition label of a drawn, and quite delicious looking, chocolate.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: cocoa, matcha green tea, ganache.

Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle was released in 2010 as a part of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Lupercalia event.

Reviewed in This Post: Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


Scent Etiquette

I’ve noticed etiquette is slowly being passed to the wayside in favor of being edgy and straight to the point. When did society get to be like this? Who knows, but let’s not get all bent out of shape when it comes to how we smell. A few tips for scent etiquette follows, for those of us who enjoy perfumes and those of us who do not: Vanilla Flower

1. Don’t smell.

Sometimes you can’t help the way you smell. You just had a jog, your landlord shut off your water a week ago, you’re used to how you smell and don’t realize it. But for the rest of us with running water and sedentary lives, please, don’t smell. Take a shower, observe basic hygiene, and put some deodorant on. If you have an aversion to scents, they make fragrance free deodorants too. As bad as some perfume lovers overdo their scent, I find the smell of unwashed people worse. You can’t smell like a flower all the time, I know. But please, if you are going to be in close vicinity to others in an enclosed space like an office, have the decency to observe basic hygiene.

2. Realize how strong you smell.

This one’s for you fragrance lovers out there. Perfumes are not all created equal. They all have different longevities and projections. Understand that while you love your fragrance, the people working in the cubicles next to yours may not. If you know you’re going to sit in one cramped room full of people all day, wear your heavy-duty fragrances a little lighter than you normally would. There’s no reason for you to stop wearing perfume. But there’s also no reason to be obnoxious and invade other people with your scent.

3. Your nose is not always the best judge of how strong you smell.

Your nose will become desensitized to the same scent over time. This is mostly for people who stick to a signature scent. If you find your old perfume doesn’t smell quite as nice and strong as it used to, you may be desensitized to it and need to take a break or switch it up a little. When your nose isn’t as good at picking up the scent of your favorite perfume anymore, you might find yourself thinking it’s the perfume and not you. Thus you put more on, creating a cloud of perfume strong enough to clear fields. Ask a friend if you’re coming on too strong with your scent. And when you think you might be desensitized, take a couple days off from wearing it or go perfume shopping for a new fragrance.

4. Beware when freshening up.

Like people with a signature scent whose noses get used to their perfume, you can get used to a perfume during the day too. Smell something long enough and eventually you won’t be able to smell it as much anymore. That’s why it’s important to keep this in mind when you freshen up your fragrance so you don’t end up overdoing it.

5. What you like is not universal.

Just because you enjoy smelling like a certain fragrance doesn’t mean everyone does. People like different things and different smells. You are perfectly entitled to what you like but don’t assume everyone else will.


BPAL: Butter Rum Cookie

There’s people who can you hook you up at Sephora with a fragrance that smells a little bit like a cookie. And then there’s Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab who can hook you up with a fragrance that smells exactly like a cookie. And what a specific cookie! Butter Rum Cookie

In Bottle: Butter rum cookie smells exactly like its name. It’s not pulling any stops on you, it’s not pretending its something it isn’t, it’s just boozy, sweet cookies.

Applied: First thing’s first, the butter rum cookie you smell in the bottle will be what you smell on your skin when you put this on. It’s a really nice, very well done blend of sweet, pastry, and rum. I smell the rum first on application but the note is so fleeting that it’s gone on me in a few minutes. The rest of the time is occupied by a lightly toasted, very rich cookie note. There’s a very subtle spiciness to this that lingers in the background but for the most part, you’ll get the full deal in the first few minutes with a drop off on the rum and hours and hours of cookie-smelling fun until it all fades into what I can only describe as a lightly floured pan scent.

Extra: This fragrance was released in 2008 as a part of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Yule season releases.

Design: Butter Rum Cookie is a limited edition fragrance bottled in the standard amber tinted 5ml glass bottle. It has a special label with its name written on it.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Rum, butter note, cookie note, sugar, almond, orange rind.

Butter Rum Cookie was one of my first stepping stones to BPAL. I had a small decant of it in a 1ml vial and after a series of disappointing scents, I was happy to have discovered this. Remember that I came from a background where perfumes were heady and oriental. It shocked me to smell something that was so literal. While the novelty of it has worn off because I’ve since smelled so many other cookie-based fragrances that smell extremely similar to this, I’ll always have that one moment when I said, “Whoa! This smells exactly like a butter rum cookie!”

Reviewed in This Post: Butter Rum Cookie, 2008, 5ml.


BPAL: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s chocolate scents are hit and miss for me. The white chocolates are always misses, as the white chocolate note tends to veer toward milk and heavy cream territory with a faint waft of plastic. Milk chocolate is a rich, sweet, buttery note that can get to be a bit too much. But dark chocolate is the magical medium where sweetness and cocoa mix to form a fantastic balance. Truffle Key Lime

In Bottle: Keylimes! There is a very slight difference between a keylime and a regular lime. Keylimes, to me, are sweeter smelling and have a cleaner, crisper citrus kick to them. In Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle, the first and only thing I can smell in the bottle are the keylimes and I am okay with that.

Applied: Smelling keylimes always makes me happy. It reminds me of the tropics, most notably, Florida. BPAL did a good job with this note but I’m wondering where the dark chocolate is. A few more minutes in and I finally get faint wafts of cocoa, a hint of sweetness, and a pleasant creamy texture that lends well with Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle’s gourmand profile. The dark chocolate is a bit fleeting though as it disappears in under an hour and takes the keylime with it leaving me smelling a bit like sweetened milk.

Extra: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle was a part of the 2010 chocolate collection from BPAL. The other chocolates in this collection include, Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle, White Chocolate Black Raspberry and Apricot Cordial Truffle, Dark Chocolate Whiskey and Cognac Truffle, and Milk Chocolate Coconut Cardamom Rum and Ginger Truffle.

Design: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top. It has a limited edition label with the house name and fragrance name on it.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Cocoa, keylime, sugar, cream.

Reviewed in This Post: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle 2010, 5ml.


Guerlain AA: Flora Nymphea

In and around the time Guerlain decided the status quo was not filling their coffers, they decided to output the Aqua Allegoria (abbreviated AA above) line of fragrances. These were simple, non-complex compositions of scents meant to draw in tentative consumers new to the Guerlain line and be evocative of nature. The philosophy behind Aqua Allegoria was to pump these things out and if a fragrance didn’t sell well, it would disappear. Flora Nymphea

In Bottle: Flora Nymphea is a light floral expression of a fragrance that reminds me quite a bit of my laundry detergent (Tide). It’s the light, inoffensive blend of generic florals that shouts clean and fresh! A pleasant deviation from Guerlains past.

Applied: Flora Nymphea is the embodiment of light, inoffensive floral. If you wanted a floral fragrance but you hate it when florals are heady then shack yourself up with some of this. It starts off with a bright citrus then mellows out into a sweet golden, floral scent with a slight green edge. The dry down is a soft, airy woodsy musk with a sheer layer of flowers.

Extra: Flora Nymphea is the newest member of the surviving Aqua Allegorias. Over the years, Guerlain’s made quite a few of these and only five are in rotation in 2010. The rest you will have to buy secondhand or from old stock because they have been cycled out of production. The surviving members are Pamplelune, Herba Fresca, Flora Nymphea, Mandarine Basilic, and Tiare Mimosa.

Design: I love the Aqua Allegoria line because they are bottled in Guerlain’s signature bee style. While it’s not exactly a close replica of vintage Guerlain bee bottles, the Aqua Allegorias do a very nice throw back to their roots. Glass with a metal honeycomb mesh over the top. The top of the metal cap has a bee embossed onto it. Lining these things up in a row is delightful because they are quite beautifully designed.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Syringa flower, orange blossom, beneficial honey.

Of all the Aqua Allegorias, Pamplelune holds a special place. I could do with or without Flora Nymphea as it is a pretty generic, inoffensive floral fragrance.

Reviewed in This Post: Flora Nymphea, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


BPAL Embalming Fluid

Embalming Fluid, despite its name, is actually quite pleasant. It’s a nice, green summer scent that’s got a good bit of refreshing bite to it that makes it perfect for warm weather. The heart of the fragrance is one of my favorite notes; green tea. Embalming Fluid

In Bottle: Green tea and lemon. Embalming Fluid isn’t high on the complexity meter but it’s a lovely mixture of two notes that go very well together when I smell this in the bottle.

Applied: Green tea amps up immediately and remains with me as the lemon comes rushing in afterward. There’s a slight sweetness to this too that helps soothe the very sharp lemon and tea scents. It mellows them out a little as the fragrance approaches mid-stage where, honestly, it does very little changing. I could be happy wearing this though and so would anyone else if they were a green tea note fan. The dry down gets a bit more interesting as the muskiness comes up for the final curtain but Embalming Fluid is a pretty easy and simple fragrance to love.

Extra: Embalming Fluid is one of those misunderstood fragrances with a name that could turn people away. Give it a chance though if you’re looking for a light, green, fresh summery scent.

Design: Bottled the same way other general catalogs scents from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab are.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: White musk, green tea, aloe, lemon.

The green tea note in Embalming Fluid is quite good. It’s very reminiscent of Creative Universe’s Te, except much simpler and lasts quite a bit longer.

Reviewed in This Post: Embalming Fluid, 2009, 5ml Bottle.


Vera Wang Rock Princess

Let’s close off this princess trifecta for now with Vera Wang’s Rock Princess, the grown-up version of Princess and Flower Princess. Add some black to the bottle, amp up the dark notes and get ready to smell. Rock Princess

In Bottle: Rock Princess comes off as a fruity floral with a very weird dense foody note backing it up in the bottle. It’s like a mix between sweet, floral, and a really gigantic pile of sweet musk.

Applied: Starts off as a heavy fruity scent with a twist of sugar to sweeten it up. The alcohol that’s lingering on the surface of this is a little distracting too, smells a bit like whiskey. The fruits are also watery and while sweet, they’ve been in the bath a little too long. I’m not quite sure this dark, dense deal is really working out in Rock Princess’ favor as the fruits start melting into the florals turning this into a spoiled fruit-like scent. I’m smelling something slightly bitter at this point which is very awkward and kind of unappealing given how sweet the rest of the fragrance is. Rock Princess is a loud fragrance. Appropriate given its name. It’s so loud that one spritz would probably do it for most people as I had thought the original Princess had a decent enough projection. The dry down to Rock Princess is really the best part. Woodsy, with a hint of coconut and that same clean musk. The sugar is dialed down so I’m assuming Rock Princess thinks you’ve had enough after the cake bombardment.

Extra: Vera Wang is a very famous fashion designer based in The United States. Most people know her for her elegant and contemporary wedding dress collections.

Design: Rock Princess is the same shape and concept as the original Princess. The glass has been painted black though and the topper is now a dark grey. The bottle still pretty much works the same way. I wasn’t feeling Princess or Flower Princess’ bottles for their cutesy heart shape and I’m still not feeling the the design.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: White peach, raspberry, bergamot, heliotrope, rose, night-blooming jasmine, lily, cashmere woods, musk, iris and creamy coconut

I think out of all the three Princess fragrances I’ve tried and smelled, Flower Princess is up front in first place, then Princess followed by this Rock Princess deal here. I didn’t find the scent appealing and it seemed like a mish-mash of stuff that didn’t go together very well. There’s a Glam Princess flanker out now too, I think. I’ll be trying that one at some point I’m sure.

Reviewed in This Post: Rock Princess, 2009, Eau de Toilette.


Vera Wang Flower Princess

With the wildly popular original Princess, Vera Wang’s Flower Princess flanker is a follow-up that wanted to appeal to cute culture (it exists). Not sure why they had to create a flanker to pitch the Princess line to the cute revolution. The original Princess is practically an embodiment of cute. I don’t even like cute. Flower Princess

In Bottle: Light florals and not a whole lot else. As I understand it, Flower Princess apparently did away with any sense of discretion and amped up the flowers.

Applied: Smells like flowers upon initial spray and top note discovery leads to more flowers. Indescribable flowers that mix into a miasma of floral that I can’t even begin to separate though the mimosa in this peeks its head up from the Flower Princess shaped hole to say hello now and then. Flower Princess is pretty true to her name at this point in time as the concoction of light florals starts dissipating. The mid-stage is very similar to the original princess, that sweet, floral scent though it is missing the dark chocolate note. I actually miss that dark chocolate note. It was my favorite part and it gave the original Princess something to brag about. The dry down is also extremely similar with a warm, vanilla and clean musk exit.

Extra: The thing about Flower Princess’ availability is interesting. It’s permanently available in the Asian market but is a limited edition for everybody else. You can no longer get a bottle of this stuff unless you’re in an Asian country. Why? I don’t know! Probably has to do with the prominence of cute culture in places like Korea and Japan. But if you’re looking to get Flower Princess, hop on a plane.

Design: There isn’t a whole lot of difference between Flower Princess and Princess’ packaging. Actually, I think they’re exactly the same with Flower Princess having a  pinker hue to it and a silver cap instead of gold. Other than that, they’re identical.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Green ivy, tangerine, water lily, orange flower petals, Moroccan rose, exotic jasmine sambac, mimosa, apricot skin, amber, precious woods, musk.

I found Flower Princess to be a little less invasive on the sweet side though I’m not wild about how uninteresting it is as a flanker. It is just a bit more grown up than the original Princess though.

Reviewed in This Post: Flower Princess, 2008, Eau de Toilette.


Vera Wang Princess

Vera Wang Princess is a wildly popular girly fragrance released in 2006 and marketed toward women in my age bracket, the late teens to mid-twenties girl. It seems those of us in this bracket are wild about fruity, floral, candy scents because Princess is all of those things lumped into one big, purple package. Princess

In Bottle: Fruity top notes blended with clean girly florals. Very sweet, very feminine, and extremely young and lighthearted scent. There’s something a bit musky about it too.

Applied: Princess is a weird mix of foody floral peppiness and clean musk. It’s trying to go two ways and I’m not really sure that’s working out for it. However, what Princess does get right is a pleasant, sweet light floral swirling in pretty chocolate cake batter being mixed in the shower. The musk in this prevents Princess from being an all out gourmand. Dark chocolate mixes very well, I have to admit and this is coming from someone who thinks most chocolate notes smell terrible. The dark chocolate present in Princess is a rich, cakey note that is often one of the first notes to fade on me. Eventually, all I’m left with is sweet and clean musk. This is pretty much what a Disney Princess would smell like.

Extra: Seems like I’m on a sweet and floral binge lately with my fragrances. Princess is one of those scents that, for some reason, goes straight up my nose and blinds my sense of smell after a while. I smell this on everyone though, as its popularity means every young woman in and around my age is rocking the purple heart.

Design: Bottled in a big glass heart, Vera Wang Princess is an appealing look for–well, anyone younger than me who likes that kind of thing. I find the bottle to be  garish and a bit tacky. Cute, yeah, but it’s a big purple heart. You can also pop the cap off and wear it as a ring. The design is just a little too young for me, I think. Or maybe they just completely missed me when they designed this bottle because everyone else seems to love it.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral

Notes: Water lily, lady apple, mandarin meringue, golden apricot skin, ripe pink guava, Tahitian flower, wild tuberose, dark chocolate, pink frosting accord, precious amber, forbidden woods, royal musk captive, chiffon vanilla.

Jeez, look at that notes list. It’s pretty much like a recipe for some of the craziest cupcakes ever.

Reviewed in This Post: Princess, 2010, Eau de Toilette.


Jean Paul Gaultier Ma Dame

Ma Dame has one of the most addictive and fun commercials I’ve seen as of date. It features international It Girl, Agyness Deyn, with a snappy song and a great dynamic series of cuts showing the rejection of order and embrace of rebel and style. But like all fragrances, I advocate smelling the actual juice. The fragrance itself doesn’t really follow its marketing image. Ma Dame

In Bottle: Fruity, sweet and candy-like. This is floral too and has a strangely clean cotton candy scent to it. Now that’s just a bit odd as when I think cotton candy, the last thing I think is clean but hey, Ma Dame.

Applied: Flowers, sugar and citrus, big chunks of sugar and a ripe orange thrown in for good measure. At the heart of this fragrance is a lovely floral mixed in with the sweetness, like candied flowers covered in citrus clean. There something lemony to this because I can smell a very strong, sharp citrus trying to overcome the other notes. Ma Dame is a strong scent with lots of sillage. It’s projection will reach an impressive distance so use it sparingly if you’re going to be in an enclosed space with others. She’s a nice fragrance though with a bright and spicy little kick to her. The dry down is a sweet woodsy affair.

Extra: Ma Dame is by Jean Paul Gaultier, a French fashion designer well known for his haute couture and conceptual fashion items. You may recognize some of his work adorning the likes of Marilyn Manson.

Design: Ma Dame is bottled in glass with a female figure recessed into it. The figure is a throwback to Gaultier’s usual bottle style in the shape of a woman. The glass has a nice orange pink sheen to it. This one is pleasant to look at but I’ve always found the body shape bottles to be a bit too much.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Orange zest, rose, musk, cedar wood.

I wouldn’t refer to Ma Dame as an order rejecting fragrance. It’s a nice tweak from the usual fruity floral fare but it has a long way to go before it rejects anything. The sweet floral is pleasant though it can be a bit much–especially if someone mistakes this fragrance for a wilting lily and bathes themselves in it, thus causing a 100 mile radius cloud of pink scent to perpetually swirl about them like a sugary tornado.

Reviewed in This Post: Ma Dame, 2010, Eau de Toilette.